AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Anytime.” Austen straightened, and I saw his gaze land on Dusty. For a second, I thought I saw a flintiness pass between them. But then it vanished, and Austen was smiling. “Hey, Dusty!”
Dusty had started to walk away, but he halted and slid a funny look to Austen. He didn’t say anything, but his eyes flicked to me for an instant. I saw his jaw clench, and he lifted his chin in the barest greeting before moving off.
I turned to Austen. “What’s the matter with Dusty today? Has he said anything?”
Austen shrugged. “No idea. He’s probably just cold.”
“Well, I’m going to go talk to him. I had some ideas about class on Tuesday anyway, and—”
“Guys?” Marshall Walker’s voice carried over the room's chatter, the clattering of tools, and the echo of feet on the unfinished floor. “Has anyone seen that kid that was here earlier?”
Everyone turned to look at each other, but nobody had any more than a blank stare for an answer. “What kid?” I asked.
“Dustin? Eleven or twelve years old, I guess. The one who was helping me back here. I sent him out to put a horse away half an hour ago, and he never came back.”
The hair on the back of my neck prickled. I knew that kid. He was autistic and had his own way of dealing with the world. For one thing, he refused to wear coats. If he had been out in a snowstorm for that long in just a t-shirt…
Cody burst through the door. “His tracks disappear at the corral. I think he’s on a horse.”
He didn’t have to say anything else. It was in a look—a look only brothers could know. In a heartbeat, Cody, Marshall, and Dusty were almost scrambling over each other to get outside, with Cody shouting directions to people they passed in the hall. I was close to a window, and I saw Morgan and Dustin’s mom beating a path for the woods to look for him.
I didn’t have to think. You don’t, in times like that. I was pulling on my coat and gloves to join the search party when Austen tugged at my arm. “Wait, where are you going?”
I lifted my hands. “Out there? Come on, they need all the help they can get!”
“But you heard Cody. If the kid’s on a horse, we won’t find him around here. You’ll have to let someone on an ATV go after him.”
“That doesn’t mean he couldn’t have doubled back or gotten dumped or something. What do you want to do, sit here and wait?”
“Well, it seems to make the most sense. Don’t you think? Of course, I hope the kid is found, and soon. I just don’t see how we can do anything but get in the way. A whole bunch of people who don’t know their way around, making more tracks in the snow isn’t going to help them find his any better, now is it?”
I swallowed and glared at the floor. He was making sense. But he was also making me angry. It just didn’t feel right, doing nothing. I swiped at my mouth with my gloved hand. “I don’t know, but I’m at least going outside.”
Austen rolled his eyes and went back for his coat, lying on the counter. “Fine. I’ll come with you, but I really don’t see what—”
His voice was cut off by the sound of the ATV engines firing up outside. I pushed the door open just in time to see Cody tearing up the hillside, with Dusty’s quad kicking up a plume of snow behind him. I closed my eyes, drank in the crisp mountain air, and breathed a prayer of hope that Dustin would be found safe and sound. He would be. Hehadto be.
But I’d never wanted to hitch a ride on the back of an ATV so much in my life.
Chapter 15
Dusty
“He’llbefine,”Iassured Meg Truman, Dustin’s mother. “I don’t even think he has a scratch on him. We just need to get him warmed up.”
She nodded, her eyes never leaving her son. The poor woman was still pale with fright, but she was a whole lot more composed than I would have been under the circumstances. “Thank you, Dusty,” she said, and I thought I detected a faint waver in her voice. “I don’t know what I would do without you guys. You’ve been good to him. He hasn’t known many men who were kind to him.”
I didn’t know what to say to that. I didn’t know Meg all that well, except that she seemed to be made of iron. Looking at her right now, I decided that maybe she wasn’t. I rested my hand on hers, then went over to talk to Dustin again.
Morgan was busy piling blankets around him in front of a space heater. The poor kid was a popsicle, but he’d come through his ordeal well enough. Physically, anyway. It might be a long time before he got over the terror I’d seen in his eyes when we’d found him—lost and alone and freezing in that white wilderness.
Cody had gone back out to search for Marshall, who had high-tailed it up the mountain after us on a horse. Someone said Kelli had come, too, and was also out there looking for him, but neither of them had come back yet.
I checked my watch. It was almost three o’clock. My stomach grumbled, but I’d missed the pizzas Kelli had brought for our lunch. There were only a couple of pieces left when we returned with Dustin, and we made sure he ate them.
Most of the volunteers had dispersed after Dustin was found. We’d planned to get a lot more work done this afternoon, but we’d lost the rhythm now. Walter Perkins, an Army veteran with a titanium leg, had stayed behind because Walter was the kind of guy who would wait all day just for the honor of fetching someone a cup of coffee. A few others had lingered, too—mostly just to talk to each other. I scuffled my muddy boots on the plywood floor. There wasn’t much for me to do now, except maybe start putting tools away.
“Hey. Did you ever get warm?”
